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Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
How do you know the higher prices are going to the authors?
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I don't know for sure, but its highly likely. If a company has more money, it highly likely that all stakeholders benefit a bit. Look how much manufacturing wages have increases in China while high-profit-margin US tech companies send them more and more big orders.
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Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
That is certainly not the way it has been with ebooks.
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I don't know how we can be certain, since average advances aren't published, and royalty rates don't impact most big-published authors. But what you are saying here is plausible.
Because of eBooks, I think that average book prices have declined, especially during the first couple of months after release. eBook pricing may be also a factor in the relative stagnation of hardcover prices. This likely explains much of the decline in advances, the other big factor being the mini-depression we still have not quite come out of.
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Originally Posted by eschwartz
And regardless, how does that translate to Amazon being evil, which is not a concept inherent in the nature of having leverage in business deals? There is only one source for that -- publishers.
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I don't think Amazon is evil, but if you google the terms:
Amazon evil
the great majority of the results are not coming from publishers.
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Originally Posted by Barcey
Really? How do you legally resell a license to an ebook without a contract?
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However Amazon does it. AnemicOak suggested in #39 that maybe the "old contract may have some kind of provision in it to have them able to keep selling them on the same terms for a period of time . . . " Or maybe Amazon has a contract with a wholesaler. Or maybe they have a series of purchase orders. Or maybe there is a verbal agreement. Or maybe they are selling Hachette eBooks illegally, but I doubt it.